August 12, 2004, Bosnia, Boca... Sarajevo, Sarasota... same thing...
Beware the blue-helmeted and jack-booted thugs, say Newtie and the Blowhards to stir up the base: this is Amurrca, and corrupt elections where we LIKE the results are the Amurrcan way. Fortunately, the much put upon Colin Powell responded to a request from Democratic lawmakers to invite in furriner election observers, in this case, not the Black Helicopter Blue Helmeted UN Army (where DO these fantasies come from?), but the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which will, for the first time, monitor American elections in November.
The OSCE observers will have little power to do anything, other than watch, look and listen, and write a report on the expected chicanery. OSCE, of course, monitored elections in parts of Europe, such as the former Yugoslavia, and I recall several years ago hearing from a number of volunteers from the New York State Bar Association of their experiences in Bosnia and Herzegovina with that project. (The capsule summary of their experiences: "moving".)
In some sense, its a loss of national pride for what was once the great champion of democracy to have to do this. Unfortunately, by not rejecting the Chimp by a big enough landslide in 2000, we the American people brought this upon ourselves.
Hopefully, the OECD will, at least, keep this one clean, so that if the Chimp's term is extended, at least it will be because that's what the voters actually wanted. This time.
Comments
When you read of these things, you just want to pack up and go to some place like America. Where would you go, Australia?
Posted by Last Straw Fred at August 12, 2004 12:43 PM
Really, what a stupid thing to write. I've never done this before until now, NO MORE POSTS FOR YOU!
Posted by thetalkingdog at August 12, 2004 05:13 PM
I've warned you about this. Pretending to be me makes me very angry. Very angry indeed. Don't make me have to figure out how to start deleting comments...
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Posted by Citizen Jim McGreevey at August 12, 2004 06:00 PM
It's not the "first time" the OSCE has monitored "American elections in November." The article you linked says the OSCE had observers at the 2002 mid-term elections.
Posted by Lynxx Pherrett at August 12, 2004 09:42 PM
Given Lynxx's painstaking attention to detail, I have learned not to argue! I stand corrected. This would, however, appear to be a first for presidential election monitoring by OSCE.
Don't get me wrong: I think that we should have monitors from all over the place, just as we should monitor foreign elections. Our elections should be a source of confidence in the strength of our democracy. Frankly, I have tremendous suspicion of those who, for whatever reason, do NOT want our elections conducted in a transparent manner.
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